The present invention generally relates to food items, particularly to rolled food items, more particularly to coils of food supported on support material, and specifically to rolled food items or the like at least temporarily retained in a coiled condition without the use of a label during its fabrication.
The sale of snack-type food products is a highly competitive business. In addition to the particular food components, increasingly the novelty and play value of the product are important in the marketability of any particular food item. For example, fruit-based snack products such as FRUIT ROLL-UPS™ fruit products have found wide market acceptance. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,882,175 recognized the enhanced marketability of chewing gum in the form of a rolled-up tape allowing the consumer the chance to break off the desired size of piece to chew, saving the rest for later.
Many foods such as dehydrated fruit puree do not lend themselves to forming rolled food items such as where the food is in a strip of a thinness generally requiring external support and/or where the food tends to stick to itself such that it creates a single mass which can not be unrolled. In such cases, support material and food supported thereon are rolled into a coil creating a novelty form of merchandising for that food. For example, FRUIT BY THE FOOT™ fruit products of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,455,053 and 5,723,163 have enhanced play value which is believed to promote the marketability thereof.
During the fabrication of rolled food items, provisions have to be made to prevent the food item from unrolling during fabrication such as in the wrapping and other packaging operations. A prior preferred method to prevent undesired unrolling is the application of a label extending over the trailing edge of the support material. In addition to its functional aspects, the labels used to hold the rolled food items in a coiled condition can add to the novelty and play value of the rolled food item. Particularly, the label often includes graphics which are visually appealing to the typical consumer of the food of the rolled food item and/or which promote the future purchase of the rolled food item. However, problems arose from the labels which had not been appropriately discarded after their removal from the rolled food item being difficult to remove when adhered to surfaces such as desk tops. One solution to this problem was to provide novel labels for such rolled food items such as of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,853,836, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Another prior method to prevent unintentional unrolling is to utilize an edible adhesive such as corn syrup. However, corn syrup and similar adhesives have certain negatives including being an additive to the food which could affect its taste, texture, and/or appearance, being messy while eating and also during application and fabrication and being generally difficult to work with.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide novel apparatus and methods for fabrication of a novel rolled food item which, in the preferred form, is retained at least temporarily in a coiled condition during fabrication such as in the wrapping and other packaging operations without the use of a label and which overcomes the negatives associated with the use of corn syrup and similar food adhesives.
Another object of the present invention is to allow the retention of the rolled food item in a coiled condition without the use of a label and without significant change to existing fabrication equipment and its operating conditions.